My doctor from Portland came down for a clinic day today--yea for not having to drive to Portland

Overall they're happy with how I'm doing. No graft vs host still. The legs---may be several reasons. Any of my myriad meds, my anemia, etc. He thinks it will gradually resolve as I'm able to get off meds and just get better overall. He and his nurse practitioner both feel a blood transfusion may be in order, they both mentioned I didn't have my normal sparkle. I'm okay with getting transfused, but I do think some of it's just adjusting to the idea of being chronically ill. While I was gone, I had a goal--to go home. Now I'm home, and there's no real goal except "you'll feel better in a year or so". Gee, thanks. Somewhere in my mind I had the idea once I got home, I'd be able to go back to my normal life, and the reality is I just can't and that's very hard to adjust to. But enough whining!

I think the heat accelerated the development of the eggs under my broody. She had 6 eggs, and day 21 was yesterday. They started hatching on Monday eve, by Tuesday noc she had 3 chicks. Wed she left the nest. One egg had pipped, so I brought them in and put them in the incubator. One hatched yesterday am, I left it in the bator all day and put it under Momma last night. Today I get home from my MD appt. to cheeping--another pip! It's cheeping away as I type. I'm hoping it hatches today so I can put it under Momma tonight. I need to candle the last egg and see if it's a keeper or not. So far, out of the 4 chicks, 3 are pullets and one is a splash, so I can't tell. Loving the sex links!

Dark Cornish momma still has 10 chicks, all doing well.

Honey's been building me some breeding pens, they're done except the front/gate. I'll try to get pics up when he's done. I stole the cattle panel/hoop house idea from Blooie and modified it some, they're perfect for breeding pens!

I agree with you. I love sex links. It's so much fun to look at a still wet chick, and say... "That's a girl!" I'm not sure if I want to continue breeding SL with EE over Dom, or perhaps change out the Dom for SLW or PBR. I'll see how this current batch of EE x Dom pullets (there are only 2) lay. They're nice looking birds, and have the super soft feathering of the Dom. Rachel, slow but steady wins the race. You're in a marathon, not a sprint. So, give yourself time. slow down, smell the roses, don't get stung or pricked by a thorn! I think of you often, and lift you up in prayer.

Rachel, if I could give you one piece of advice it would be this - nothing that happened to you happened to you overnight. It was sneaky and insidious and it slowly wore you down until it made you sick. That's how you're going to recover. Your healing has to be sneaky and insidious because that seems to be the kind of fight this ugly enemy understands.

My wonderful Honey spend Father's Day working on my breeding pens. I think they're finished except one more gate, we were a board short and the store was already closed so we called it a night and had ribeye steaks for dinner . I'm so happy with my pens, I'm literally dreaming about the different breeding combos I can set up. I do think I need to get transfused next week, though. I was emotionally all excited about the work getting done, but physically couldn't do hardly anything, much less than I've been able to do lately. Honey thinks I just need to get topped off, maybe it will help my body not work so hard to make all the cells I need.

More chicks chirping in the incubator! I think I'll just keep chicks hatching all the time, I love the cheeping but hate brooding in the house.

Sounds like you had a really nice day yesterday. I bet your DH was glad just to have you keep him company while he worked on the pens. Sometimes we don't need someone to do something, we just want someone to be there.

It'll be fun to hear about the breeding you do to fill up the new pens.

Good morning Rachel & everyone else. Rachel, There is a lady in the town I work who makes a living hatching out eggs..... Yeap! She will hatch out your eggs and charges only for the ones that hatch out. Good service for someone who does not have an incubator, or time to deal with it. She also raises a few specialty breeds that she sells. I love hatching them out too. Fluffy butts!!

3 more chicks in the incubator this morning! they're all Olive eggers from my splash Ameraucana over a cuckoo Marans. They're also sex linked, but they need to dry off enough I can look for a head spot. I'll candle the rest this afternoon, but I think this may be it for this batch. Getting the last gate on the breeding pens today, so I'll get everyone sorted tonight and be able to start collecting eggs from my other breeds in a few weeks

Dr appointment this afternoon--still going to ask about a transfusion. Couldn't even fix dinner last night, and I've been able to do that fairly easily the last few weeks. We'll see how the counts are doing.

3 more chicks in the incubator this morning! they're all Olive eggers from my splash Ameraucana over a cuckoo Marans. They're also sex linked, but they need to dry off enough I can look for a head spot. I'll candle the rest this afternoon, but I think this may be it for this batch. Getting the last gate on the breeding pens today, so I'll get everyone sorted tonight and be able to start collecting eggs from my other breeds in a few weeks

Dr appointment this afternoon--still going to ask about a transfusion. Couldn't even fix dinner last night, and I've been able to do that fairly easily the last few weeks. We'll see how the counts are doing.

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Woohoo!!! Congrats on the new babies.
Fingers crossed with regards to the Dr. appointment.